Butler parish creates space in former school to expand, enhance food pantry

BUTLER  In the morning on second Satur­days of the month, part of the basement of the former St. Anthony School here buzzes with activity like at a local supermarket. Shoppers push their carts down wide aisles well stocked with boxed and canned goods. Then they head to a refrigerator section with vegetables and fruits and a freezer department for a variety of meats, chicken, or fish.

Welcome to the new food pantry at St. Anthony Parish here, which opened in May in a new location. For the first time it offers the “supermarket experience” to its 50 to 60 client families in need from Butler and Bloomingdale. Formerly located in a smaller area in the basement of St. Anthony’s rectory, the new pantry lets clients select the food that they want for their families from a larger selection of groceries than ever. It is open from 9 to 11 a.m. on second Saturdays, said Franciscan Father Joseph Juracek, St. Anthony’s pastor.

Ever evolving, the food pantry recently added a new feature: assigning staffers to accompany clients during their visit, almost like personal shoppers. They help the clients make their selections based on the “point” value of each item; clients are allotted a certain number of points per visit based on family size. In addition, the pantry collaborated with the Butler Methodist Church further down the street on Bartholdi Avenue, which opens its pantry for local families on the morning of fourth Saturdays, said Father Juracek.

“I like shopping like this. My family would go hungry without it. I’m grateful,” said an unnamed female client, who asked for anonymity, during a recent trip to the pantry — one of the many clients it serves, including many non-Catholics.

Formerly a computer room in St. Anthony’s School, the new pantry offers five times the space of the old pantry in the rectory. The new facility houses two rows of shelving stocked with canned fruit, large cans of soup, rice, pasta sides, baked beans, pancake mix, syrup, and coffee. The wide aisles can fit two carts as they pass by each other, said Franciscan Brother Patrick Fereday, director of maintenance at St. Anthony friary and parish, who oversaw the pantry renovation.

At one end of the pantry sits large freezers and refrigerators — some of them salvaged from the former school’s kitchen — so clients can pick up cold and frozen items. Similar to the rest of the pantry, these groceries are made possible by the donations of parishioners and local residents and businesses. Pantry staff also hands out gift cards to local grocery stores. Also salvaged from St. Anthony School was a window unit air conditioner, Brother Patrick said.

The new pantry has a lobby area with 40 chairs, where clients wait to be called to start their shopping. Eventually, clients who are waiting will be able to read flyers on health concerns that will be on display there. In addition, a room on the floor above the pantry now houses a “wellness center,” where they can pick up household products, toiletries, and over-the-counter medications — from laundry detergent and deodorant to cold medicine. There, clients also can get donated glasses or medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, canes, and walkers, said Brother Patrick.

“The new food pantry is unbelievably better than before,” said Brother Patrick, who noted that the pantry serves 50 to 60 families — more than the 30 families before the pandemic. “People can take their carts, go down the aisles, and get what they want — not like in the past, where we gave them shopping bags with items that were picked out already. This gives them a greater sense of dignity,” he said.

The new pantry greatly expands the reach of the former pantry in the basement of St. Anthony’s rectory, a small room that held two rows of shelves of food on either side. Staffers placed a shopping cart in the middle of the tight quarters of the pantry and worked on both sides of it to fill bags with food ahead of the pantry’s next opening day, said Patricia Elgarhi, part of the team that runs the pantry.

On the day the pantry was open, they handed out the bags on a table outside the rectory. Clients waited in line to receive their bags of pre-selected items, Elgarhi said.

Father Juracek saw an opportunity to expand the pantry after the 130-year-old school closed in 2016 — the result of a steadily declining enrollment. The Borough of Butler told St. Anthony’s that it would have to make significant improvements to the building, before it could rent it out — renovations that the parish considered too costly. However, the borough told St. Anthony’s that it did not have to undertake any improvements to the school if it wanted to use it for its own “ministerial purposes,” said Father Juracek.

So earlier this year, Brother Patrick led efforts to tear out parts of the old computer room and then repaint the walls and install new flooring, shelving, lighting, and a drop ceiling. In late May, staffers packed up the food of the former pantry for the move to its new location. The Knights of Columbus Council 943 transported items to the new pantry where staffers were waiting to unpack them and place them on the shelves, said Father Juracek.

“This large pantry is easier for clients to use,” said Father Juracek, who also noted that the facility has a larger unloading area for cars and vans with donated food that is situated closer to the pantry entrance. “I thank parishioners and local people and businesses that have been exceedingly generous in their donations,” he said.

The physical improvements that made St. Anthony’s food pantry possible arrived on the heels of a major renovation project next door of the interior and exterior of the 96-year-old friary building, which houses many retired Franciscans of the Holy Name Province.

“The new food pantry is growing steadily under Father Joe’s vision,” Elgarhi said. “The clients say, ‘Thank you.’ It’s gratifying for us to help them in a small way to provide them with sustenance for a little while to make their lives easier,” she said.